Turning On the Lights for Thursday, September 19, 2024. Guns & Politics.
Good Morning my brothers and my sisters. We take a break from 1 Corinthians this morning to openly talk about a few hot-button topics that are pressing in on the church this political season.
Guns and gun violence.
Politics becoming more theological and pressing in on our Christian values.
And this whole notion of voting for “the lesser of two evils”
May God bless you. Keep looking up – and
WE WILL SEE YOU IN CHURCH!
This is a video recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Thursday, September 19, 2024. Watch here via the YouTube link!
Two parts:
Part 1:
Part 2:
This is an audio recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Thursday, September 19, 2024. Listen here or through your favorite podcast app!
This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Thursday, September 19, 2024
Hey, good morning. Good morning. My brothers and my sisters. There’s that light. I haven’t changed it yet. There it goes. We got it. We’re turning on the lights here at the Church Town Church of God. Whoa that wasn’t lightning. That was our broken fluorescent light. I hate changing fluorescent lights. I would rather call a lighting expert and have all of the lighting changed in the church then change fluorescent. Hi here we go again. We just got brand new internet and it says it’s not connected. Are we connected? Are we doing okay? Tuesday was just what I thought it would be very very busy. It’s been another very very busy week here at the church. Today, I am looking forward to doing this and then actually having let me turn this off a couple of moments to study scripture for Sunday. Whoa what a novel concept. We’re going to study our scriptures for Sunday. We’re talking about the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. Of course, God over all and the implications for the physical, the spiritual and whoa you guys are crooked. I’m so sorry about that. Let me get you where you need to be and we’ll see what that looks like. There we go. Welcome to Turning on the Lights everybody. We are talking about some things today because I keep getting asked about things because the world is in turmoil and I’ll go through all of that here shortly but like I said just catch you up on the week. It has it’s been interesting. There’s a whole story to tell you may have read in the newspaper that we got robbed, but we didn’t so that’s a whole mess. I think I don’t know if only Channel 21 or News 21 CBS carried the story, but the story said that the Church Town Church of God in Monroe Township was burglarized, but we weren’t and so that’s caused a whole sort of thing by itself people admitting to burglarizing our church, but they didn’t do it. So they it was another church close by, but then we had the police out here and investigators and all of this other stuff. I had news reporters wanting to talk to me about how we were doing and you know after this event and I’m like sorry nothing happened. So we had that going on something like I send it out to church Council. Hey, here’s the weird text of the week right. Here’s what’s going on because I swear there’s always something weird happening here at Church Town. Maybe it’s just the venue. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe it’s just God planting the seeds of perseverance and strengthening our faith right our resilience our hope in him because certainly our hope is not in anything else and we’ll get to that during this broadcast as well because that ultimately is where we go with all of these things. Lord may the meditations of our minds today glorify you and you alone. Would you guide us with your wisdom and your word in the name of Jesus Christ? Amen. So like I said, we’re trying to prepare. I got a good bit of writing done yesterday and preparation for meetings and Sunday and outlines and bulletins and Church Town weeklies and all of these different things and then today. Hopefully I’ll have a few hours to dig in to what we’re looking at this week and that is the sovereignty of God over our own wills. Right over ourselves now this is hotly contested and has been since the reformation. When we and before that to a lesser degree, but since the reformation and the rise of Calvinism and people will say that there is a difference between reformed theology and straight, you know, five point Calvinism and there is but the idea that of God’s sovereignty over human beings has caused a lot of violence and hatred and division and all of those things. One of the reasons being because we’re talking about ourselves. So when we talk about the when we talk about God being sovereign over nature, everybody’s cool with that when we talk about the spiritual realm and God is sovereign over the spiritual realm. Everybody’s cool with that when we talk about ourselves, which will deal with our own sense of self our own pride our own wills and egos. Woo hoo get a little touchy with that. No no no God. You’re not sovereign over me. You work with me. Some people believe you work for me. So we’re gonna take a look at that because both sides of that theological construct God’s sovereignty over humans are very well represented in scripture and there’s a reason why and so we’re going to explore that on Sunday. It’s a big topic on Sunday, but and it might take more than just Sunday, but we’ll get there. It’s a very important. I think that we can have a thoughtful discussion over such matters when we you know when we’re talking about who is sovereign over the church. That will be another topic because people you know pull out all the proof texts about men men men men men forgetting that there is no human that is sovereign over the church. There is no human that is the head of the church. Jesus Christ is and so when we operate on that premise, perhaps the scriptures regarding God’s sovereignty over his bride, which is the last piece of this that we’re going to explore later on in October is another hot button issue. But like I said with everything going on right the political climate, the social climate, the economic climate, the shootings and the discussions about individual liberties and freedoms and abortion and where that is and sovereignty. You have sovereignty over your body, my body, my choice all of that people are asking me because people want information. It’s kind of a compliment. I suppose if they genuinely want my opinion or what I you know about things instead of fighting about it or arguing or what what does scripture say where where do we stand theologically on these issues? Where do we what are your considerations when it comes to gun violence and those sorts of things? So I thought we would I hate to say get this out of the way, but let’s just take a different tack today and talk about the three things that I mentioned in the topic in the title guns. Politics and the lesser of two evils you hear all of these things being front and center today. First of all the issue of guns right. If you’re a Christian and you’re a peace lover, then you must be a peace lover and you must be anti gun and you cannot cannot believe that any Christian would ever want to own a gun. I can’t believe any Christian would ever okay. First of all as a Christian, there is zero negativity about arming yourself for self defense and the defense of others right. One of the primary commandments that we are given is to not commit murder and to defend the image bearers of God. If you are capable of defending the image bearers of God, then you should do that whether you do that through martial arts or through a weapon of some sort, whatever the case may be the strong should stand up for and defend the weak. That’s one premise of that plus you have every right if we want to talk about bodily autonomy to defend yourself against evil manifest against you. Alright and I distinctly remember a shooting in a church years ago and of course the computer or computer probably the same thing today with AI with AI. We talked about the Christians right to self defense right. There’s nothing if you are a peacemaker that may be very well peace through strength. There has been more peace that has been brought on by the strength of a nation or an individual or you know when you have a strong presence to suppress the evil and wickedness that is in the human heart or can be easily the human heart can easily be consumed by evil and wickedness. This is simple human nature left to our own devices. You see what you get when you can turn on any of these media feeds and just watch mobs of people walk into a store take whatever they want do whatever they want kill whomever they want. We see that left to our own devices without a strong presence right law enforcement all of those different things human beings go astray very quickly. That is nothing new. That is the story of human history and when we have these secular progressive ideas that we’ve moved beyond that that human beings can we just sit down and talk about it and at the core we’re all good people and we all want to be good people and well look around you. Now the specific issue of guns is a very unique issue to the United States of America because the Second Amendment, which is so often brought up and discussed and debated and condemned or upheld you know celebrated enshrines the right to bear arms for the as one of the individual liberties. American citizens have good morning again. Everybody everything is fine. So we have that particular aspect of it to contend with so when you start saying well, just do this and just do that and just ban this weapon and ban that weapon and do your pressing up against a right that is given and enshrined in our founding documents. So you’re going to have to argue nearly every instance when you say you gotta take these weapons out of the hands of people. You gotta stop manufacturing these weapons selling them to consumers. You’re gonna come up against that all the time. So that’s one issue that is unique to the United States. The second issue that is primarily unique to the United States because everybody is saying well look at Canada. Look at Australia is the big buyback right Australia boom. They pass the law. You turn in your guns or go to jail all of those things. Good morning. The issue that is unique to the United States is that there are anywhere between 320 and 370 million weapons out there. So that’s the 350 million pound elephant in the room and politicians and people can say ban the second amendment. Let’s let’s you know amend the Constitution and and abolish the second amendment and let’s confiscate all of the weapons. Well, you’ve got yourself something different here in the United States and it’s easy to say those things, but you’re not going to be able to execute those things without a civil war and that’s not threatening. I’m not saying let’s do it. I’m saying boom. Yeah registered weapons. It’s too big. Australia has the approximate population of New York. So everybody looks at Australia and says look at work there and I’m I’m I’m really not saying we should or shouldn’t do it. I’m saying we’ve got this 350 million pound elephant in America that is going to make it very difficult to execute that law. And if you’re going to go door to door and use the military to break in and look for then you’ve got yourselves a major situation on your hands and you’re going to have yourself a major situation on your hands. So what’s the solution? Well, that’s not that simple because the problem has been generations in the making. The problem has been the decay of the moral structure of the United States and yes, a lot of that has to do with the decay of the church, if you will. Right and the and the Christian values being front and center in the culture of America are now on the margins and what is front and center in the culture of America is do what you want. Right you are set free. You be you. You do you. You and that leads to all of the mental illness that we have today. It leads to all of the medications that we have today. It leads to all of the lostness that we have today. People that are wandering aimlessly seeking a purpose and are just breaking themselves down to the point of death. And there’s an entire part of our culture that is existing in this swamp. This vacuous area that has no right or wrong, no male or female, no understanding of truth. And this has been again generations in the making as we have sought secular progressive values as opposed to Christian values. Secular progressive definitions of right and wrong as opposed to Christian definitions of right and wrong. We’ve watched the moral and ethical decay and decline of American culture. Now you have your deadly mix. Of all of those millions of guns, weapons out there and a large portion of the population, a significant minority dwelling in darkness and mental illness, seeking their purpose, seeking who they are, not knowing that who they are and their purpose is found in the Lord alone. And this is two ways to look at it. And you can we can whine and bemoan the decline of the Christian church, the Orthodox Christian church, because those churches that call themselves Christian yet buy into all of that darkness say, well, let’s embrace that then, because we got to stay Christian, right? So we’re going to embrace all of the mental illness, we’re going to embrace all of the darkness, we’re going to embrace all of the sin. And we’re going to say, yes, it can be a part of the Christian church, why not? And that just further pushes the decline of American civilization farther down. Because now you’re claiming the name of Jesus Christ and attaching it to darkness and sin. You understand what I’m saying? So we can bemoan all of that, or Christians who know the truth, live in the truth, live as disciples of Jesus Christ can stand for the truth, live in the truth, and be wonderful disciples of Jesus Christ and the church can view the culture as never being more ripe for the harvest. And now we’ve talked about this before, we know that the culture has been condemning the church condemning Christians, putting labels all over Christians. Another one of the reasons why folks who call themselves Christian, turn around, feel that prayer pressure and embrace the darkness. But we know that we’ve been labeled and we’ve been condemned and, and the church has been pressed into the margins of our culture. And that when we stand up and we say no, this is mental illness, this is not the way human beings were even designed by God. This is an example of godless human beings living of their own devices, being confused and seeking to fulfill some sense of identity somehow, some way outside of Christ. And that’s exactly what I’m talking about now and, and preaching now. And we must live that way as Christians. No, we don’t walk around throwing Bibles at people and condemning people in the that’s not our job. Our job is to live our calling as disciples of Jesus Christ, to live his word, share his word, and be able to have those thoughtful conversations. So we’re moving along here. There’s the issue of guns in the United States of America is a political football, right? We look at guns and abortion. If either one of them could be solved politically, then one side of the aisle or the other would lose an awful lot of what they run on to get votes. So there is that issue as well. If you’re a supposed liberal and anti gun and all of that, you don’t want the gun problem to be solved. You’ll be out of a job. You’re not going to be what will you run on? It’s a gigantic political football. And if you’re all pro gun, you don’t want that to be okay, fine. All everything’s pro gun wide open. Oh, gee whiz. Well, what now is going to be part of our platform. So understand to the third aspect of all of this is the fact that it like many issues is a political football that’s bounced back and forth with our feckless politicians having no intention whatsoever of solving any of these issues. Because if they did, and when election time came around, what would they talk about? Actually having to do stuff. So, politics. Politics. When people talk about the church keeping its nose out of politics, okay. But our theology has not become more political. Everybody wants to say Christian nationalism and all these different things. Our theology has not become more political. Politics has become more theological. There are issues that are being voted upon, issues that individuals are running on. Good morning, Michelle Lena. Issues that are people are seeking votes to get into office so that they can continue to promote that are damaging to the image bearers of God, damaging to the Orthodox Church, the bride of Christ. So it’s not as though we have changed our theology and now it’s go Christian nationalism and we’re going to do and everything is changed and we’re going to press into the government and we’re going to do take over everything is going to be a Christian theocracy. No, no, no, no, no. But as Christians, when you watch an individual, man or woman stand at a podium and promote the kind of mental illness that we see today through the transgender movement and all of that. When we watch a politician try to dig deeply into the culture by saying, no, you as a parent shouldn’t have any control over your children. The state should be able to respond to their needs. And if that child is confused and once puberty blockers and all of those things, we as Christians are going to stand by and watch the state, which is godless by definition. Be the driving force in our culture. Be the parent. Raise the children. Pass laws that embrace darkness, that embrace sin, that embrace the anti Christ nature of political power. Now we have an issue. If you’re going to stand at a podium and try to seek my vote by saying no, it should be enshrined in our constitution that you have the right to kill children that you do not want. Regardless of how they were conceived, they are conceived with their own set of DNA. They are two separate beings. One a mother, one a child. And you’re saying that even if the mother and this is true, this is what really irritated me about that so called debate. There is no instance where a child is born alive and then left to die. Yeah, there is. And there have been over the past several years in Virginia and Minnesota in particular. You can give birth to a child and it comes out the baby is born and perhaps there it’s obvious birth defect, whatever the case may be, you can decide what to do with it then. Excuse me, I’m being brutal. You can decide what to do with him or her then. And you have individuals who will simply either allow that child to perish or actively intervene in the death of that child. That’s legal. You can’t run on that without me as a Christian opposing you and speaking against you because you’re seeking the political power to destroy the image bearers of God. And when we look at the 10 commandments, the first four, do you honor God the last six, do you honor his creation? That’s a powerful foundation for right and wrong. It’s a powerful foundation for determining what is right and wrong. And so just as much as it is wrong to completely destroy a major forest for the sake of building a parking lot, or a condominium series, it’s because that is certainly not honoring God’s creation and being a good steward. It is wrong to kill human beings because you want to And so like I said, politics has become way more theological, pressing in on the truths about human beings that Christians and Christianity has stood for for millennia. And so it’s sort of like, it’s sort of like an attack by a physical enemy. Good morning, Dan. Right, you send in the bombers and you show you, you send in the artillery and you soften up the enemy. In this case, the church was the enemy of the state, right? So for decades, we’ve been called names and we’ve been labeled and we’ve been marginalized. And Christians have become very afraid to be Christians. Very afraid to share their voice in the cultural conversation. And to say that is wrong. So for decades, we’ve been softened up and now over the past decade, maybe the past several years alone, you’ve just seen an explosion of darkness and sin and defilement of human beings. The hands of naked political power and the church, the part of the church that has not embraced evil, the church who has remained faithful to Christ is like, should we say anything? I don’t want to be called hate filled bigot, pedophile racist. See what I’m saying? The enemy has done good work. And we read throughout Scripture 366 times, do not be afraid. We read about trusting in the Lord, we read about living our calling and having faith that he will complete his will on earth through us. We read all of that we say we that we believe that, but we’re afraid to stand up to any politician and say that’s wrong. Or go into the culture and say that’s wrong. And we have to stop being afraid. And I know that it’s only been the past few years that I’ve grown any sort of a voice in that area where I’m not afraid. But part of that is that biblical literacy, because you say that is wrong. And they say, why? You need to be able to answer that question. According to your Christian values, and your Christian values are derived from the Word of God. You need to go deeply, you need to have your roots there, you need to digest the word, and be able to speak it and live it and have the conversations and help you know, as the Lord works through you to share the word because how can they ever believe that they do not hear? And how can they hear if nobody is willing to go? So the harvest has never been more ripe. And so finally, we look at it, those are two gigantic hot button issues, right? The transgender and homosexual movement, and abortion, both of which are seeking to destroy the image bearers of God, the first from the inside out, the second from the outside in. But it’s undeniable that both seek to destroy the image of God within that human being. And so that those political pushes are theological issues. If you do not believe that Jesus Christ was born of a woman, then you’re not a Christian. If you believe that he was conceived in Mary’s womb, but he wasn’t a human being yet, you got a problem as a Christian. And that’s why Jewish individuals like our governor have no issue with abortion whatsoever, because they do not believe that primary theological precept that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and he was conceived of a woman in a womb, and that he is fully human and fully divine from the time he was conceived. Christians can’t say, “Oh, yeah, up until the whatever week.” Okay, so up until the whatever week, Jesus Christ wasn’t human. Okay, you’re not a Christian. You can’t have one without the other. The Jewish tradition believes, going back to the book of Genesis, that life begins at the first breath. So you won’t find too many, you know, practicing Jewish individuals, especially who are in leadership like our governor, zero problem with destroying that baby right up until its first breath. And there’s no conscious about it, because they’re just godless individuals who do not believe in salvation in a Savior. You gotta choose where you stand. And finally, the whole discussion of the lesser of two evils. Okay, so you got Kamala or whatever name is, and you got Donald over here, and you gotta choose the lesser of two evils, we keep hearing. Well, let me tell you something. In every election that involves a human being, you’re going to have to choose what you believe is the lesser of two evils. Because human beings, even if we are saved, we are simultaneously sinner and saint. I would love for there to be a devout practicing Christian running for president. He or she would definitely be, if the other person wasn’t, he or she would definitely be the lesser of two evils, but they would still be the lesser of two evils. All we can ever do when we are voting for people, we’re voting for politicians. Very rarely do we vote for leaders. Our congressmen and women are not leaders. They are representatives. Our senators are not leaders. They are representatives. They create policy. They are bureaucrats. They are politicians. They are not leaders. Very rarely do we ever vote for leadership. We vote for representation because we are supposed to control the leadership. Thank you. Understanding that goes a long way in understanding your civic duty, which we are also called to do, right? To submit ourselves to the authorities that are over us. Well, how can we best do that as Christians and still maintain our integrity? We look at the individuals. We compare and contrast our truth, not our truth, our truth as Christians, right? I want to get that modern age stuff. Truth, Christian truth against what they’re speaking, our Christian values against what they’re speaking, what they’re promising, what they have done in the past. You get all of the information that you possibly can to make the best choice that you possibly can and you make that choice, but it’s always going to be the lesser of two evils. You can’t prop one side up as evil and one side up as true good. Yes, even if you were running. Christians must understand that when it comes to making those choices, we know the truth. We live the truth. We seek the truth in ourselves, in the world, and in others. We understand that this government’s not going away, that it is supposed to be here and God is sovereign over it. So let’s use our brains and let’s pray and be in the word. Let’s gather as much information as we possibly can about these candidates who are running and make the best choice that we possibly can. And I urge you to. It is our civic duty and along the lines today, I’ve given you a few things to think about theologically as politics are pressing hard into Christian theology. In particular, the Ten Commandments are in what we are doing politically, honoring God and honoring his creation. Base your judgment of what a politician is saying on that. Is that God honoring? Is that honoring his creation? Obviously, including the very special creation of human beings. From that very simple start, you will be able to begin the process of discernment. And as to what as a Christian, what is right and what is wrong? You say, you know, if you’re looking for the perfect candidate, okay. Well, he sacrificed himself for us. He’s no longer around in the physical realm right now running for president, but he does dwell within you to grant you the peace. First of all, that God is sovereign overall. And that regardless of any outcome, his purposes will prevail period. So I should give you peace and as we enter into this arena as Christians, this political arena, knowing what you know as a Christian, living how you live as a Christian, knowing God’s word, you gather as much information as you can. You make the best decision that you can, but understand that you’re electing a human being. It’s always going to be the lesser of two evils. So I don’t know if this helped at all. We talked about the unique situation of guns in America. What are you going to do about it? We talked about how it is a political football. We talked about the 350 million pound elephant in the room, that it is a gun culture. Should we embrace it? Should we mandate or make part of public school curriculum gun safety? Should we? I mean, you’re not going to, unless you’re going to do a complete take down of the United States using a military that is going to completely turn against his citizens, you’re not going to repeal the Second Amendment and confiscate 350, 300 registered weapons. So what? What are we going to do? What, we ask this all the time, what can we do? And we know that the result of a lot of this murderous culture that we live in, we live in a murderous culture, is the combination of the breakdown of society, which in large measure is a result of the marginalization of the Christian church. The rise of mental illness, the rise of evil, the rise of darkness, people who are lost, seeking identity, seeking purpose, seeking notoriety, anything outside of Christ. You combine that with all of these weapons and you’ve got a murderous society. What can we do? We talked about politics in particular as they’re being pressed during this election, the transgender movement, the homosexual movement, and the abortion movement. All of them are death cults, all of them. The transgender movement and the homosexual movement destroy God’s image bearers from the inside out. Abortion destroys God’s image bearers from the outside in. Those are not just political issues, they are theological issues for the Christian and you need to vote accordingly. And yes, you can’t be a Christian and say that abortion is morally correct. That is denying the hypostatic union of Christ. Fully human, fully divine. And finally, get off your high horse. You’re called to live a life worthy of your calling as a disciple of Christ. And as such, you’re called to do your civic duty, but understand that as a Christian, you’re still voting for a human being. It’s always going to be the lesser of two evils. But at least know how to choose the lesser of two evils based on the truth of God’s word. And finally, my brothers and sisters, all of this to say, it’s going to be okay. All of this to say everything turns out exactly the way God wants it in the end. Have faith, keep your eyes up, and do not be afraid.
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